770 research outputs found
Single amino acid substitutions in the N-terminus of Vibrio cholerae TcpA affect colonization, autoagglutination, and serum resistance
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74620/1/j.1365-2958.1995.mmi_17061133.x.pd
Interleukin-13 Genetic Variants, Household Carpet Use and Childhood Asthma
10.1371/journal.pone.0051970PLoS ONE81
The Debris Disk Around HR 8799
We have obtained a full suite of Spitzer observations to characterize the
debris disk around HR 8799 and to explore how its properties are related to the
recently discovered set of three massive planets orbiting the star. We
distinguish three components to the debris system: (1) warm dust (T ~150 K)
orbiting within the innermost planet; (2) a broad zone of cold dust (T ~45 K)
with a sharp inner edge, orbiting just outside the outermost planet and
presumably sculpted by it; and (3) a dramatic halo of small grains originating
in the cold dust component. The high level of dynamical activity implied by
this halo may arise due to enhanced gravitational stirring by the massive
planets. The relatively young age of HR 8799 places it in an important early
stage of development and may provide some help in understanding the interaction
of planets and planetary debris, an important process in the evolution of our
own solar system.Comment: emulateapj format, 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted to Ap
Ac transport studies in polymers by a resistor network and transfer matrix approaches: application to polyaniline
A statistical model of resistor network is proposed to describe a polymer
structure and to simulate the real and imaginary components of its ac
resistivity. It takes into account the polydispersiveness of the material as
well as intrachain and interchain charge transport processes. By the
application of a transfer matrix technique, it reproduces ac resistivity
measurements carried out with polyaniline films in different doping degrees and
at different temperatures. Our results indicate that interchain processes
govern the resistivity behavior in the low frequency region while, for higher
frequencies, intrachain mechanisms are dominant.Comment: LaTeX file, 15 pages, 5 ps figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Phase Transformations in the High-Tc Superconducting Compounds, Ba_2RCu_3O_(7–δ) (R = Nd, Sm, Gd, Y, Ho, and Er)
The phase transformation between the orthorhombic and tetragonal structures of six high-Tc superconductors, Ba2RCu3O7−δ, where R = Nd, Sm, Gd, Y, Ho, and Er, and δ = 0 to 1, has been investigated using techniques of x-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis/thermogravimetric analysis (DTA/TGA) and electron diffraction. The transformation from the oxygen-rich orthorhombic phase to the oxygen-deficient tetragonal phase involves two orthorhombic phases. A superlattice cell caused by oxygen ordering, with a′ = 2a, was observed for materials with smaller ionic radius (Y, Ho, and Er). For the larger lanthanide samples (Nd, Sm, and Gd), the a′ = 2a type superlattice cell was not observed.
The structural phase transition temperatures, oxygen stoichiometry and characteristics of the Tc plateaus appear to correlate with the ionic radius, which varies based on the number of f electrons. Lanthanide elements with a smaller ionic radius stabilize the orthorhombic phase to higher temperatures and lower oxygen content. Also, the superconducting temperature is less sensitive to the oxygen content for materials with smaller ionic radius. The trend of dependence of the phase transformation temperature on ionic radius across the lanthanide series can be explained using a quasi-chemical approximation (QCA) whereby the strain effect plays an important role on the order-disorder transition due to the effect of oxygen content on the CuO chain sites
Microwave Nonlinearities of an Isolated Long YBa_2Cu_3O_(7-d) Bi-crystal Grain Boundary
We measure the local harmonic generation from an YBa_2Cu_3O_(7-d)(YBCO)
bi-crystal grain boundary to examine the local Josephson nonlinearities.
Spatially resolved images of second and third harmonic signals generated by the
grain boundary are shown. The harmonic generation and the vortex dynamics along
the grain boundary are modeled with the Extended Resistively Shunted Josephson
(ERSJ) array model, which shows reasonable agreement with the experimental
data. The model also gives qualitative insight into the vortex dynamics induced
in the junction by the probing current distribution. A characteristic
nonlinearity scaling current density JNL ~ 1.5 x 10^5 A/cm^2 for the Josephson
nonlinearity is also extracted.Comment: 10 pages, including 12 figures, submitted to PR
HST and Spitzer Observations of the HD 207129 Debris Ring
A debris ring around the star HD 207129 (G0V; d = 16.0 pc) has been imaged in
scattered visible light with the ACS coronagraph on the Hubble Space Telescope
and in thermal emission using MIPS on the Spitzer Space Telescope at 70 microns
(resolved) and 160 microns (unresolved). Spitzer IRS (7-35 microns) and MIPS
(55-90 microns) spectrographs measured disk emission at >28 microns. In the HST
image the disk appears as a ~30 AU wide ring with a mean radius of ~163 AU and
is inclined by 60 degrees from pole-on. At 70 microns it appears partially
resolved and is elongated in the same direction and with nearly the same size
as seen with HST in scattered light. At 0.6 microns the ring shows no
significant brightness asymmetry, implying little or no forward scattering by
its constituent dust. With a mean surface brightness of V=23.7 mag per square
arcsec, it is the faintest disk imaged to date in scattered light.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figure
Dust in the inner regions of debris disks around A stars
We present infrared interferometric observations of the inner regions of two
A-star debris disks, beta Leo and zeta Lep, using the FLUOR instrument at the
CHARA interferometer on both short (30 m) and long (>200 m) baselines. For the
target stars, the short baseline visibilities are lower than expected for the
stellar photosphere alone, while those of a check star, delta Leo, are not. We
interpret this visibility offset of a few percent as a near-infrared excess
arising from dust grains which, due to the instrumental field of view, must be
located within several AU of the central star. For beta Leo, the near-infrared
excess producing grains are spatially distinct from the dust which produces the
previously known mid-infrared excess. For zeta Lep, the near-infrared excess
may be spatially associated with the mid-infrared excess producing material. We
present simple geometric models which are consistent with the near and
mid-infrared excess and show that for both objects, the near-infrared producing
material is most consistent with a thin ring of dust near the sublimation
radius with typical grain sizes smaller than the nominal radiation pressure
blowout radius. Finally, we discuss possible origins of the near-infrared
emitting dust in the context of debris disk evolution models.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Astrophysical Journa
The Manchurian Walnut Genome: Insights into Juglone and Lipid Biosynthesis
Background Manchurian walnut (Juglans mandshurica Maxim.) is a tree with multiple industrial uses and medicinal properties in the Juglandaceae family (walnuts and hickories). J. mandshurica produces juglone, which is a toxic allelopathic agent and has potential utilization value. Furthermore, the seed of J. mandshurica is rich in various unsaturated fatty acids and has high nutritive value. Findings Here, we present a high-quality chromosome-scale reference genome assembly and annotation for J. mandshurica (n = 16) with a contig N50 of 21.4 Mb by combining PacBio high-fidelity reads with high-throughput chromosome conformation capture data. The assembled genome has an estimated sequence size of 548.7 Mb and consists of 657 contigs, 623 scaffolds, and 40,453 protein-coding genes. In total, 60.99% of the assembled genome consists of repetitive sequences. Sixteen super-scaffolds corresponding to the 16 chromosomes were assembled, with a scaffold N50 length of 33.7 Mb and a BUSCO complete gene percentage of 98.3%. J. mandshurica displays a close sequence relationship with Juglans cathayensis, with a divergence time of 13.8 million years ago. Combining the high-quality genome, transcriptome, and metabolomics data, we constructed a gene-to-metabolite network and identified 566 core and conserved differentially expressed genes, which may be involved in juglone biosynthesis. Five CYP450 genes were found that may contribute to juglone accumulation. NAC, bZip, NF-YA, and NF-YC are positively correlated with the juglone content. Some candidate regulators (e.g., FUS3, ABI3, LEC2, and WRI1 transcription factors) involved in the regulation of lipid biosynthesis were also identified. Conclusions Our genomic data provide new insights into the evolution of the walnut genome and create a new platform for accelerating molecular breeding and improving the comprehensive utilization of these economically important tree species
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